Commemorating World AIDS Day

December 1, 2010—To mark World AIDS Day, December 1, amfAR will join fellow AIDS advocates in calling for a worldwide commitment to treatment, care, and support for those living with HIV, as well as recognition of their human rights. Events began on November 30, the eve of World AIDS Day, when amfAR Chairman Kenneth Cole, amfAR Ambassadors Liza Minnelli and Cheyenne Jackson, and others rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to raise awareness of the pandemic’s continuing toll.

In addition, amfAR will again co-sponsor the global Light for Rights campaign, which will include a wide range of World AIDS Day events during which the lights on major landmarks will be dimmed temporarily in remembrance of the 25 million lives that have been lost to AIDS, and in recognition of the human rights abuses that often accompany and exacerbate its spread.

In New York City, Cole and Minnelli will take part in a ceremony in which the lights on the Washington Square Park Memorial Arch will be extinguished and then re-illuminated. Light for Rights commemorations will also take place at the Brooklyn Bridge, Madison Square Park, Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, the Beacon Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, the Apollo Theater, and 40 Broadway theaters.

Coordinated by a partnership that includes amfAR, UNAIDS, the World AIDS Campaign, and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the campaign is organizing events in cities around the world, including Sydney, Montreal, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, and London.

Since 1988, people around the globe have marked World AIDS Day by remembering those have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS and advocating better treatment and care for those living with the virus. Nearly 30 years since the first AIDS cases were identified, more than 33 million people are living with HIV, and more than 300 are infected every hour. To read more about the epidemic’s continuing toll, click here.

For more information about the Light for Rights campaign, including tips on planning events and social networking campaigns, templates for op-eds and letters to the editor, and basic facts about HIV/AIDS, visit www.lightforrights.org.